arrived in rio de janerio

i arrived in rio de janeiro, brazil this afternoon. once again, i had the privilege of setting my alarm clock to a ridiculous time in the morning (4 am). my early morning flight from santiago to rio de janeiro made a pit stop in sao paulo, brazil to drop off some passengers. once i arrived in rio, i slipped through customs and immigration very quickly (almost too quickly, it made me kind of nervous). the apartment i have rented offered to provide me a transfer from the airport to copacabana for US$70 (return). being cheap, i politely declined the opportunity and boarded the city bus for a whooping US$1.50. about one hour later (even though the airport is only 15 km from downtown) i arrived in copacabana. i do not think i have ever seen that kind of rush hour traffic before in my live. as the temperature was well over 30, the beaches were absolutely full of people.

i now have an apartment in rio, two blocks from copacabana beach. so far the apartment seems quite fine, although i am sure something will go amiss over the next week.